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Southern California Discussion - flexible dealerships & price paid

fanman888fanman888 Member Posts: 17
edited September 2014 in Honda
Seems like Southern California is getting very little love from most dealerships when it comes to pricing on the 2011 Honda Odyssey. While most of the country (especially the East Coast) is reporting at or near invoice sale prices for most of the 2011 Odyssey line, Southern Californians posting on this site are reporting most dealers barely willing to budge off MSRP. I have spent the last few days corresponding with quite a few Southern California area dealerships and can confirm this (and at times, markup!)

So, I would like to start and grow this discussion in order to pinpoint the dealerships in Southern California who are currently ready and willing to negotiate with potential customers and who are providing good/great deals on the 2011 Honda Odyssey. Let's start directing our business there.

AND, if there very few, provide an incentive to SoCal dealers reading this forum that if they're willing to deal at or near invoice, that they'll generate much more business than their competing dealerships around them.

Hopefully, with our collective efforts, we'll have a "Weymouth Honda-Type" dealership pop up in Southern California real soon.

I have owned only 3 cars in my life - all Hondas. I hope #4 will be a 2011 Honda Odyssey Touring. From the postings on this site, it seems many Souther Californians (and Californians in general) are experiencing the same frustrations. California is the biggest market for Honda in the USA! Let's demand pricing that reflects that!

Comments

  • utc2utc2 Member Posts: 42
    fanman888,

    Agree completely with your post. I spent most of yesterday trying to negotiate on a Touring Elite in SoCal and no one would budge more than $500 off MSRP. Agree that it is quite frustrating. No local dealers willing to deal.

    As I need the car by the end of March, I am considering purchasing out of state and having the vehicle shipped. The two best out of state dealers from my research are Weymouth and Bobby Rahal. Weymouth can not seem to get the inventory (pre-oder in Nov and still no order placed) while Bobby Rahal seems to have better inventory but poor communication with Internet Staff. You can get an immediate e-quote and will be excited to see the near invoice pricing.

    Locally, I have had dialogue with Airport Marina, Keyes, Galpin, Norm Reeves, Power, Goudy, DCH Temecula and Gardena, Culver City via internet staff either via email or phone and again the lowest price was $500 below MSRP except at Goudy where I negotiated $1500 below MSRP but not the color we wanted. Hardin in Anaheim had a mark up for their Elite.

    Would be interested in hearing if anyone had better luck than fanman888 and myself. Good luck!

    utc2
  • mlempiremlempire Member Posts: 34
    Every dealer I have checked out are adding to sticker and laughing at me when I suggest going below sticker. I have only seen 3 on the road since October and only just recently at that. I bought 2 Odyssey's at Metro off the 10 freeway, They are in Clairemont, Ca., in 2000 and 2002. They were willing to deal on line back then, they kept the van hidden in the back lot, I arrived, did the paperwork, drove it away in 1 hour, no hassle at all and no games, way below sticker. At the time there were waiting lists for months.
  • iloveteailovetea Member Posts: 3
    EX-L's information:

    Invoice: $31,205.19
    Destination: $780
    Sub-total: $31.985.19
    HDAG (dealer's fee): $312.05
    Pro-pack (mud-guard, mats, wheel locks, trunk tray): $218.90
    Invoice Total: $32,297.24
    Addition: +300 over the invoice

    Total: $32,597.24

    Document Fee: $55
    Sale Tax (San Diego 8.75%): $2,857.07
    DMV Electronic Filing Fee: $29
    License Fees: $374
    Registration/Transfer/Titling Fees: $86
    California Tire Fees: 8.75

    Out-The-Door Price: 36,000
    Able to negotiate an extra 2nd row cover seat with this deal ($265) - not a bad idea to negotiate for extra part. This would made it up some what to even out the HDAG (dealer's fee) charge.

    My 1 cent advices:
    _ compare the price with all the dealers
    _ give yourself at least 2 weeks before you make the purchase - if you request a quote over the internet or over the phone, just tell them that you want to get the car ASAP. The dealership would try to work hard on this deal and wouldn't bluff you so much on the price. This would give you extra time for negotiation
    _ bargain down to at least $3,000 'n start your negotiation from there - ask for extra interior or exterior part(s)
    _ ask your sale-man to give you a test drive: lots of battery maintenance issues on 2011 model, got this info from other members' posts. I also experienced couple of these vans in San Diego market with this problem. Stay away from them!. I, myself, experienced the clicking noise every time I step on the break pedal - brought it into for car service, another unknown issue.
    _ The sale-man should able to walk you through in and out of the car. Otherwise, ask for another sale-man. This will tell them that you are serious about buying the car. Also, no sale-man wants to spend hours with you without making any commission. For this reason, she/he would easily ease into your price and/or request (parts).
    _ KARR-Theft Deterrent Device: my friend who works for Honda told me not to get this extra option since the alarm already built in. Unless you live in some ghetto area, it's not a bad idea to invest your $595 on this optional service.
    _ Negotiate the Interest rate with the sale-man before you walked into one of the "finance" cubicle to do the paperwork. Dealer would jacks up the interest rate if they see you are desperate want to get this car.
    _ Dealer will give you a car wash/wax before you drove off the lot - make sure you keep your eyes on your car. They only wiped down my car before I requested them to hand wash and wax the whole car.
    _ Spot for any scratch, paint chip - inter and exterior of the car. Have the sale-man write down that they would able to fix them or else, they would compensate you with extra parts. Check for the rubber seals on both sliding doors - they seems to not attached all the way.
    _ Test USB, bluetooth, moon/sun roof - yes, they are under 3 years warranty but you would save lots of trouble for bringing your car back to the dealer and who knows it would break down again just like the battery issue which unsolved by Honda at this point.
    _ Don't give into the deal when you have a talk with one of their Manager or Supervisor. You can get up, tell them that they could contact you once they agreed with the deal, then walk away. The deal is still there. These dealers use "holiday promotions" just so people think the price is only good for those days only. The cost of the car will go down and they wouldn't want to keep them in the lot for long.
    _ Complain about the high mileage of your car - lots of test drive, average test drive: 3-4 miles. If you car has high mileage, let them know that this car has been in their lot for long and no one would want to buy it. They are losing money for having it seating there.
    _ Let say you want to buy your car in Blue (exterior) and Beige (interior),for example. AND you know that dealership carries this car: ask the dealership for the color that they don't have in inventory. This way, you would get the car's color that you wanted but in lower price. Tell the dealer that you would take the color that they have in inventory for a lower price since they don't have to make any trade with other dealership.
    _ Lots of the dealership just takes your contact info over the phone and have you wait for days before they contact you back. Go with the flow and once they called back, tell them that you got an offer from other dealership with lower price, pro-pack, extra parts, free car wash for life, cross bar, body guard, door strips, etc.
    _ Do not let the Finance Manager sign the loan through Honda or any other bank without your agreement. Have it open so you can shop around at your bank or others. I were able to get lower loan at my bank. When I brought the check in to pay them, the dealership then dropped down their interest rate - even my bank couldn't match it.

    For some reason, all the dealerships in Los Angeles, Irvine, Orange County and Aneheim that I compared the price with have higher price quotes and don't carry the pro-pack.

    I'm happy with my new ride and its price. On other hand, I would like to hear about your purchase experience and hope you all get a better deal!
This discussion has been closed.